Morocco’s Military Equipment Purchases from France Exceeded $750 million in 2013

Morocco spent more than $2.5 billion in acquiring French military hardware over the past five years. In the decade ending 2013, Morocco was been France’s 6th biggest buyer of French weapons, behind Saudi Arabia, India, Brazil, the UAE and the USA. Still, France is not Morocco’s biggest supplier, since the United States grabs about 35% share of the Moroccan spending, versus 30% for France.

Within the African continent, Morocco is the fifth biggest spender on military equipment, behind Algeria, Angola, Egypt and South Africa (in descending order).

Among the latest Moroccan purchases are the multipurpose frigate Mohamed VI at a cost of almost $600 million, and the major acquisition in 2007 of 36 American jet fighters F16 for a cost of $2 billion.

While Morocco held the 6th position as a buyer of French military equipment, it has been pushing lately to improve that ranking, becoming actually third in 2013 after Singapore and Saudi Arabia. In 2013, purchases from France amounted to almost $756 million.

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